A former Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Kingsley Moghalu, Monday, announced that he was consulting widely to run for the presidency in 2019.
Moghalu told journalists in Lagos that time had come for technocrats, intellectuals and experienced people to take power from Nigeria’s career politicians.
He said he would not be deterred from joining the race, in spite of speculations that 2023 was the year slated for Igbos to have a shot at the presidency.
Moghalu, according to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), argued that politics in Nigeria should be detribalised for Africa’s most populous nation to grow and take its rightful place in the comity of nations.
“It is the turn of any competent Nigerian to aspire for the post of presidency because career politicians have failed Nigeria.’’
He said that zoning, which had been used by the major political parties, might have been relevant in the past but that it was no longer necessary because competence should be placed above tribe in present day Nigeria.
“Zoning was an internal arrangement by political parties that was not constitutional. It should no longer matter where the president comes from.
“The future of Nigeria rests in technocratic interventions. We need thinking people that will take Nigeria from the politics of stomach infrastructure to politics of mental infrastructure.’’
The former CBN chief said the first part to progress for Nigeria was for the people to begin to think differently and beyond tribe in choosing those who would lead them.
Speaking on a second term for President Muhammadu Buhari, Moghalu said the president had constitutional rights to seek re-election.
As if technocrats aren’t or can’t be corrupt! Power is too concentrated in Abuja and a technocrat would equally abuse all that power.
The current system makes us too divided (along ethnic lines) to unify to hold our elected leaders accountable. What we truly need to ensure a better governed Nigeria is devolution of power and a restructuring of the country that would ensure that citizens can hold their elected representatives accountable. Accountability is easier if each region of government is ethnically or linguistically homogeneous.